RESEARCH into cocktail stirrers which can show if a drink has been spiked with a date-rape drug is being paid for by the firm behind Coventry's SkyDome nightclub.

Leisure group Luminar has stumped up cash to produce the swizzle sticks, which change the colour of the drink if it has been spiked with date-rape drugs Rohypnol or gamma hydroxybutric acid, known as GHB.

Luminar, which is also behind Millennium and Liberty in Nuneaton, the Gas Street Club in Rugby and the Chicago Rock cafe chain, is committed to making its venues the first in the country to give out the swizzle sticks to female clubbers.